“The only question is why the president would make up such a thing,” says Rep. Adam Schiff of California

The White House has been asked by lawmakers to produce evidence of President Donald Trump’s wiretapping claims.

Leading members of the House Intelligence Committee have demanded that President Donald Trump provide evidence by Monday of his claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped—possibly by former President Barack Obama.

The Associated Pressreported Saturday that committee chairman, Devin Nunes of California, and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff of California, made the request in a letter sent to the White House last week.

Other lawmakers have made similar demands, including U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), as Common Dreamsreported Wednesday.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also reiterated the call for evidence on CNN‘s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I think the president has one of two choices: either retract or to provide the information that the American people deserve, because, if his predecessor violated the law, President Obama violated the law, we have got a serious issue here, to say the least,” he said.

Also Sunday, Schiff repeated his doubts about Trump’s claim while speaking to George Stephanopoulos on ABC‘s “This Week.” However, he added that FBI director James Comey and others called to testify at the upcoming hearing “would be in a position to have to know.”

“I think on March 20 if not before we’ll be able to put this to rest,” Schiff said. ”I don’t think anyone has any question about this, George. The only question is why the president would make up such a thing.”

About ew

ew came of age during the winddown to the Vietnam War, and like many other Americans, as soon there wasn’t an issue that didn’t affect him personally, he became indifferent. This gradually changed during the Reagan and Bush I years, continued through the Clinton years and finally came to a head with the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. He works as a freelance consultant/tester for various music hardware and software companies, and lives in Minnesota with his cat and other weird and wonderful noise machines.